So Chelsea’s birthday party was fun and interesting. We had a talk and she said that she regards her friendship with me as one of the most important things in her life which almost made me scream but I remained calm and played it cool. It really made me happy. I prefer to have her in my life in whatever capacity rather than not having her at all. My harmony is incomplete without her :).
How are you finding teaching at Allen City University?
Take care,
Jamie
The next morning Jamie saw Chelsea on his way to the park for a run. It looked like she just drove into the driveway but she remained inside her car. When he got closer, he saw her face clearly, wet with tears, her eyes were red, her nose running and she was hyperventilating. Scattered all over the passenger’s side were pieces of used facial tissue.
“Chelsea, what’s wrong? What happened?” He thought something really bad must have happened to her. Did she get robbed or something? He scurried to the other side and opened the passenger door, sat beside her and held her against himself. She cried against his shoulder, holding his arm, soaking up his jacket with her tears.
“You’ll be alright. You’ll be alright,” he kept reassuring her without even knowing why she was crying. He just wanted to ease her into feeling better.
“I’m sorry,” she said minutes later. She sniffed and cleaned her nose again, then tried to catch her breath.
“Do you wanna go for a walk?” Jamie asked. He hated seeing her cry like that. “Let’s go get you some fresh air.”
“I’d love that,” she said.
They got out of the car and as they walked away from the house, Chelsea pressed the lock button on the remote car key and held Jamie’s hand.
They walked around the block and headed for Jefferson Park.
“Do you feel better? You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to.”
She nodded and held tightly to his hand.
It was after they got to the creek behind the park, after watching the ducks for about twenty minutes that she finally told him she broke up with John. He was as shocked as Chelsea was that Amy slept with John behind her back. Amy was like a sister to her, or so she thought.
“Have you spoken to Amy since?”
“No I don’t want to. I’ll just get more upset right now. I mean how could she? Of all the guys she could have slept with in this world. She wasn’t even thinking about her own boyfriend either. I mean how can someone be so selfish? Just going about doing things to hurt people you claim you love? Honestly, I don’t want to talk to her because I don’t want to know the details. How it started. Who initiated what. I don’t want to know any of that.”
“I know, I know. It must really hurt. Being deceived by someone you love is not a pleasant thing. Will you be OK though? That’s all I’m concerned about right now.”
“Yes,” she said and smiled for the first time. She thought that Jamie was such a good listener. He knew how to make her feel better without saying much. Just being there, looking at her with those caring beautiful eyes. “I’ll probably just cry for one week and I’ll be fine. He was turning out to be a jerk anyway. And to think I was willing to keep trying. I kept telling myself that no one was perfect, you know. But honestly, I don’t want to be with someone who thinks the whole world is about them. You know what I mean?”
“I do,” he said nodding. “Go ahead and cry for one week but don’t let it go past that. I don’t want it to affect your productivity so you have to find things to distract yourself. Bury yourself in school work, go out with friends as much as you can.”
“I don’t really have that many friends here anymore except you and Amy. Well I guess it’s just you now. Most of them have left Elmtown. My other friends who came for the party all work in Allen City now.”
“Ok I’ll distract you then,” he said and held her. “I’ll take you to all those places I talked about. Don’t worry we’ll have fun.” He managed to draw a smile from her with his wink.
So for the rest of the week, they walked to school together, studied at the library together and then went bike riding on Tuesday evening. They went to a bar at the Elmtown pier where they shot some pool, went to Jamie’s jazz nightclub on Thursday night and then took Tyler to the movies on Friday night to watch Step Up 3D.
The only time of the day Chelsea cried was when Jamie wasn’t with her, which was mostly at night in bed. When they were together, everything else fizzled into nothingness. He was like a light that cast her worries into the background like shadows; they didn’t matter when he was around. She wondered how she would have coped with all her schoolwork if he wasn’t there for her.
***
Two weeks later, on a Saturday afternoon, Jamie revealed the math exercises he wanted Tyler to attempt from page sixty-five through seventy-five of the eighth grade math textbook. Tyler started doing well at school since he came to an agreement with Jamie. One hour of math lessons twice a week earned him two hours of basketball coaching, either on Saturday or Sunday depending on Jamie’s schedule. Tyler really wanted to be good at basketball so he could get on the team at school.
Teresa peeped into the library and asked, “Would you guys like something to drink?”
“No Mom, I’m good. Maybe Jamie wants something?”
“Thank you Mrs. Braithwaite. I already had a glass of water.”
“OK, just let me know if you guys need a snack or anything. I’ll be knitting in the living room.”
What she really wanted to say was thank you. Mrs. Robertson from Tyler’s school called two days before. Teresa’s first thought was that Tyler had probably been in another fight or hadn’t done any of his homework, skipped classes or something like that. But she was wrong, it was to inform her of the pleasant changes they were noticing in Tyler. It was almost like a complete one-eighty-degree turnaround.
She went back to the living room, picked up her needles and the half-knitted pink yarn and continued knitting on the sofa. Tyler was doing fine. Chelsea was doing fine as far as she knew but the girl seemed a bit withdrawn lately. Is everything fine with her and John? Teresa wondered. She hadn’t seen him since the party.
“Hi Mom,” Chelsea said as she entered the living room.
“Hi sweetheart, how did studying go at the library?”
“So so. I think I was too hungry to study properly.”
“Why didn’t you just go get something to eat?”
“The cafeteria doesn’t open on Saturdays.”
“I see, I would have packed some lunch from home if I were you.”
“I should have. What are you up to?”
“Just knitting. Tyler and Jamie are doing math in the study so I thought I’ll do something productive too.”
“Oh great. I was going to ask Jamie if he wanted to go to the movies tonight,” Chelsea said, then she went straight to the kitchen to find something to take care of her hunger.
It suddenly struck Teresa. It was as if her mind just added one plus two and it all came together like a revelation. Something was up. Chelsea had been hanging around Jamie a lot lately, a bit more than usual.
Five minutes later, she left her knitting material and went into the kitchen.
“Honey how is John? I haven’t seen him here in a while,” she said to Chelsea who was just retrieving her bowl of oatmeal from the microwave.
“He should be fine,” Chelsea answered nonchalantly. She opened a container and scooped few pieces of pineapple cuts into her oatmeal.
“Is everything OK? Did you see him recently?”
“I haven’t seen him since the party and don’t think I’ll be seeing him for a long while.”
“Am I missing something?”
“We broke up Mom. We broke up at the party.”
“Oh my God. No. Why? And you didn’t wanna tell me?”
“I just wanted to get over it properly first. The bastard slept with Amy. Can you believe that?” Chelsea asked with a plain tone that almost suggested she was getting o
ver it already.
“He what? You are kidding,” Teresa said loudly, rattled by what she heard. How could Chelsea sound so carefree about something so serious? Teresa wondered.
“No kidding mother,” Chelsea said playfully and then ate a full spoon of oatmeal. “My goodness, these pineapples are so yummy.”
“Oh no he didn’t.” Teresa came close to Chelsea. “I’m so sorry.”
“Mom, it’s OK, I’m fine, you don’t have to look so distraught.”
“That good for nothing back stabbing girl. I knew there was something off about her the first time you brought her home. You have to be careful about the kinds of friends you keep. She must have seduced him.”
Chelsea chuckled. “How do you know it wasn’t the other way around? Why are you trying to blame it all on her. It takes two consenting adults to tango. They probably both wanted it so good for them.”
“Honey, I know girls like that. They are like snakes. Coming here and acting all goodie goodie. That was her plan all along. She couldn’t be happy for her friend. Her eyes were set on John from the start,” she said. Still perplexed by the news, she figured this was why Chelsea had been spending a lot of time with Jamie, going out almost every evening. She still felt like Chelsea was unskilled in choosing the right friends. Is this why he’s teaching Tyler math and basketball? Just to get closer to Chelsea? First Amy steals John and now Jamie wants to take advantage of the situation.
“Look honey, I know you’ll be fine but just be careful with people you choose as friends. And don’t jump into any relationship or anything like that. You’re young and have a lot of time to meet someone, OK?”
“Hmmm, I hear you life-coach Mother,” Chelsea said in jest. “I’m definitely not going to be in a rush for a boyfriend.” She scraped the last bit of oatmeal and drank water from a tall glass. “But wait, that wasn’t what you were saying to me a month ago though. You kept going on about how John and I should get married as soon as I graduate. One would have thought you wanted me to ask John to marry me by December.”
“Just take it easy. That’s all I’m saying. I don’t want you keep getting hurt.”
Chelsea kissed her mother on the cheek and said, “I know.”
15
The movie theater downtown was part of the same building as the Omega Karaoke Centre and was Chelsea’s favorite place to watch movies. For one, she loved the IMAX screen and two, their 3D glasses weren’t uncomfortable like those of the other theaters.
“It’s going to rain. I knew we should have stayed home. Watched something on Netflix or something,” Jamie said as he noticed the gloomy clouds.
“Shut up Jamie. You know I don’t mind paying,” Chelsea said knowing Jamie was only uncomfortable with the fact that she paid most of the time when they were out but she didn’t care, spending time with Jamie had become the highlight of her day. “Don’t worry, when you become rich and famous, you can pay me back.” They both laughed.
She had been riding on buses a lot with Jamie lately and really loved it. Time on the bus made her discover things about the town that she never really noticed. She also got to see strange and interesting characters on the ride; almost crazy quirks and very talkative adults without whom the town would have been very dull as Jamie once said to her. She was surprised to see there were more hippies in town now.
The bus was unusually crowded that evening probably because of the rain, but they were lucky to find seats behind two older women who both smiled at them.
“I don’t have time for men anymore,” one of the two women said as Jamie and Chelsea settled behind them. “With this,” she said, producing what surely was some kind of weird sex toy, “all I need is to charge the batteries. Voila!”
The women laughed heartily then the one with the pink toy looked back and said, “Don’t mind us. If you have a good man, hold on to him darling.”
Chelsea smiled and nodded. It wasn’t the first time a stranger said something to her on the bus or started a cringe-worthy conversation. Growing up in the protection of an upper-middle-class suburb, how could she have known local Elmtown folks were this entertaining?
She overheard a conversation about how a new cannabis cookie shop just opened and how a church member bumped into her parish priest buying organic snacks that got one high quicker than a roll of weed.
They went strange routes and found interesting places she never knew existed or just never paid attention to.
Chelsea rested her head on Jamie’s shoulder which became a habit whenever they rode on the night buses. She could feel his toned muscles against the side of her face and caught herself wondering how it would feel if she touched his arms and chest with her hands. However, it wasn’t only his body she noticed–she also liked his eyes. She would sometimes have to remind herself to listen to whatever he was saying whenever he looked down at her with those dark eyes of his. She wondered how she missed the fact that her best male friend had the most beautiful eyes ever.
“Why does it have to rain now?” Chelsea hollered as they got off and ran for the building’s giant doors. Her hair was already wet but at least they were lucky they only had to run a short distance between the bus stop and the theater. There were two couples running ahead of them and one of the guys held the door kindly as they dashed into the theater’s reception.
“Thank you so much,” Jamie said to him.
“No problem. Weather forecast got it wrong again today, didn’t they?”
“I know right,” Jamie responded as he took off his jacket.
The smell of popcorn, melted butter, nachos and chili filled their nostrils as they stood in line to buy their tickets. The line was long but they still had half an hour before the movie would start.
When the movie started, Jamie held Chelsea’s hand as she rested her head, with all the dampness of her hair on his shoulder.
Always underestimating how cold autumn evenings could get, she wasn’t properly dressed, so she started to shiver a little.
Jamie placed his jacket around her then started to rub the inside of her hand with his thumb softly as if to make her feel better. Then he noticed something that filled him with pleasant wonder. She didn’t only hold on to his arm firmly but she also started writing circles on his skin. Their bodies became so close Jamie could feel the warm breath from her mouth creating goose bumps on his arm. He calculated that breathing through her mouth meant that her lips were parted and wondered if she was just breathing that way or if it mean anything. He knew girls sometimes parted their lips unconsciously when they wanted to kiss but he was probably just reading meanings that weren’t there. After deliberating for a few minutes on the possible chances of Chelsea wanting to kiss him as much as he wanted to kiss her, he remembered he was supposed to be watching the movie and tried unsuccessfully to follow the story.
He hadn’t even noticed the horror flick’s gory scenes until Chelsea pressed her face into his shoulder.
“Are you scared? I thought you liked horror movies,” he whispered.
“Not scared. Just don’t want him to die,” she said a little louder than him. The blond in front of them looked back and gave them a look of disapproval. Chelsea mouthed sorry, placed her head back on Jamie’s shoulder and stayed that way until the end of the movie.
“You had your umbrella this whole time?” Jamie asked as Chelsea produced a black umbrella from her handbag. He shook his head and moved pieces of matted hair away from her face.
“I’m sorry I totally forgot and it was kinda buried beneath all this junk. I really need to declutter.”
As they stood by the door, she opened the umbrella and handed it over to him which made sense since he was taller. He held her waist with his left hand and held the umbrella over them as they stepped outside into the rain.
As they stood under a black lamppost, waiting to cross the road, Jamie found courage, turned to face her and drew her closer to himself. He looked down, gazing into her eyes, then stared at her lips. He then kissed her forehe
ad as if to ask for permission. He wasn’t thinking or rationalizing anymore. His feelings were now completely in control of every single thing he did.
Then he noticed she was looking back intently into his eyes and had parted her lips. This time he was sure it was not just for breathing. There was no need for words because he saw it in her eyes. He saw that she wanted him to kiss her. His lips found hers and held them for what seemed like an eternity. When she kissed him back, touching the insides of his lips with hers, he dropped the umbrella and pressed his lips a little harder on hers until their mouths were completely open.
He was kissing her and she was kissing him back. It was still raining and they were wet but it was all so beautiful. I must be dreaming, Jamie thought. He let his arms hold her more firmly and she wrapped her arms around his neck drinking his kisses like a thirsty girl in the desert who finally found clean drinking water. They were drenched and people were passing but they didn’t care about any of that. Right in that moment, they were in their own world where nothing could come between them.
With their clothes wet, lips tingling and staring at each other in the eye, they stopped for breath. It was Chelsea who spoke first. “We are kissing,” she said but he noticed she didn’t say it in any weird sort of way. She said it smiling which meant that she found pleasure in kissing him as much as he did in kissing her. She said it in a way that sounded like it was something she would like to do again. Jamie’s eyes widened with bliss. Kissing her was like floating on clouds.
Neither of them could think straight anymore.
An Autumn to Remember: A Novel (Elmtown Series Book 1) Page 12